Contemporaneity in the History of Art

2009–2010

This fall’s workshop convened by Terry Smith focused on the challenge of seeing contemporary art from historical perspectives, while at the same time revisiting the art of the past with an eye to the contemporaneities present within it. This ostensible paradox might seem to promise an enriched approach to the entire history of art. Looking directly at the present, we might ask whether or not contemporary conditions have reshaped our conception of “the world,” and thus our conception of the currents manifest in global contemporary art. Are the evident interconnections between each region, people, city, even locality in the world today sufficient to enable us to speak of a new, contemporary phase in the “world” history of art?

Participants included

Alex Alberro, Barnard College and Columbia UniversityOkwui Enwezor, San Francisco Art InstitutePeter Galison, Harvard UniversityAndrea Giunta, College of Fine Arts, University of Texas at AustinBoris Groys, New York UniversityCaroline Jones, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyKeith Moxey, Barnard and Columbia UniversityJoshua Shannon, University of MarylandDavid Summers, University of VirginiaAnne Wagner, University of California, BerkeleyWu Hung, University of Chicago